1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inter-device communication and, more particularly, to a device and method for performing communication using Wi-Fi Direct.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Inter-device communication may include Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth, and Zigbee. Wi-Fi is a wireless local area network (LAN). Wi-Fi is a communication network which enables users to access ultra high speed Internet in the vicinity of an access point (AP). Wi-Fi Direct is a new version of existing Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi Direct is a communication technology for wireless connection between devices using Wi-Fi without the Internet. Wi-Fi Direct does not require a hot spot, a router, and an access point (AP). Devices supporting Wi-Fi Direct may be directly connected to each other to transmit and receive files or share a communication network.
As described above, Wi-Fi Direct is a kind of direct communication between devices equipped with Wi-Fi without using an access point (AP) supporting connection between Wi-Fi Alliance devices.
Basically, Wi-Fi Direct interconnects two devices in a one-to-one connection mode. A smartphone may be directly connected to another smartphone, a mouse may be directly connected to a laptop computer, or a tablet PC may be directly connected to a printer using Wi-Fi Direct. As a result, pictures, music files, or moving images stored in a smartphone may be easily transmitted to another smartphone, documents or pictures stored in a tablet PC may be directly printed, addresses stored in a PC may be synchronized with addresses in a smartphone, or game consoles may be directly connected to each other for users to enjoy games.
A plurality of devices may be connected to one device. For example, a monitor, a printer, a digital camera, and a mouse may be simultaneously connected to a laptop computer supporting Wi-Fi Direct. At this time, in a case in which the laptop computer accesses an existing Wi-Fi network, the devices connected to the laptop computer may access the Internet via the Wi-Fi network in the same manner. However, a one-to-many mode is optional.
Meanwhile, Wi-Fi Direct devices decide a device to function as an AP when initial connection between the devices is performed. A device connection method in Wi-Fi Direct is as follows. Devices supporting Wi-Fi Direct transmit and receive a control message to and from each other to recognize which device supports Wi-Fi Direct and transmit information necessary for interconnection to each other through a control message. This method includes a procedure of negotiating which of two different Wi-Fi Direct devices serves as a group owner. The group owner means one selected from a device group constituting a Wi-Fi Direct network having a right to control the device connected thereto and serving as an AP. In the negotiation procedure, group owner intent values of the two devices are exchanged to decide which of the devices serves as the group owner.
In the conventional Wi-Fi Direct connection, predetermined group owner intent values, which may be any values, are generally compared with each other to decide a group owner. As a result, efficient network connection is not achieved. For example, a specific device may not be controlled to be the group owner.